It all started with two household names in Liberian politics; a founding member of the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL), Oscar Quaih, and founder of the Movement for Justice in Africa MOJA), Dr. Togbah –Nah Tipoteh, have recounted their memories of the crisis ridden era of Liberian history- 1979 to 2003 during their appearance before the TRC. The two were associated with the April 14, 1979 Rice Riot in Liberia that led to the death of hundreds of unarmed civilians. The riot was a result of rice increment in the price of Liberia’s staple food, rice, and there were protesting Liberians led by PAL who fell victim to that memorable event that served as one of the origins of unrest in Liberia and culminated into a nearly two decade long civil war.
Taking the stand at a well attended TRC thematic public hearings at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia, Oscar Quiah said the rice riot was a consequence of the insensitivity of the William R. Tolbert led government to pay attention to the plight of the citizenry by reducing the price of rice.
Quiah disclosed that prior to the rice riot, he and others forwarded recommendations to President Tolbert calling on him to increase the price of cigarettes and other commodities to enable him reduce the price of rice due to its essence but said the President did not listen to them.
He justified that the rice riot was exacerbated by government soldiers but he and others organized a parade and not a protest responding to a question from one of the Commissioners of the TRC saying a protest is violent where weapons are used and a parade is peaceful like the 1979 episode.
Quiah blamed government soldiers who he said shot and killed over a hundred peaceful parading civilians. Ironically, Quiah, one of the organizers of the “parade” said he was rescued by government soldiers, the same group he spoke of firing at peaceful civilians.
Rice Parade 'not a showdown with Tolbert govt.'
He said the rice “parade” in his words was not a showdown with government and refuted that the protesters were bearing arms and other weapons, terming the event as an advocacy for the well-being of the Liberian people.
Quiah described the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) as a military government which he said did not consult civilian officials including him before taking major decisions.
Making specific mention of the 1980 execution of 13 officials of the Tolbert government the PRC overthrew, Quiah stated that he other senior civilians serving in the PRC had no input in decision that would have set the thirteen free, indicating that even his own family members were also killed along with the thirteen.
Commenting on the coup d’ etat that brought the PRC to power, Quiah said he was called by President Doe after the coup to help set up a government and he in turn brought in Dr. Togbah-Nah Tipoteh and Dr. H. Boimah Fahnbulleh, Jr. to contribute their expertise to the new military government.
Quiah denounced the connection of the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) in the execution and other actions carried out by the PRC. He revealed that he also felt out with the PRC government and was jailed several times, both at the Monrovia Central Prison and the Bella Yeala prison in Lofa County, saying he was brought to court and ordered executed by the PRC government but he is still alive through the grace of God.
“My own brother Samuel Doe labeled me a coup plotter and ordered that I be killed but as God could have it some of the people in the army were people who knew how good I was and set me free”, Quiah continued in his lengthy testimony.
Down on his knees - 'I'm sorry'
Quiah went down on his knees and pleaded with the Liberian people for forgiveness saying ““I am sorry for what I did that cost people to lose their lives. I am saying this sorry from the depth of my heart. Only forgiveness can move this country forward”.
According to Quiah, he conducted a research before the 1979 conflict that gradually dragged the country into chaos where he discovered that the Americo- Liberian versus Natives’ syndrome was responsible for the backwardness of the country. He said his research came out with the conclusion because after a thorough investigation nothing was seen as being behind the underdevelopment of the country since independence on July 26, 1847 but mere Congo-Native division.
Questioned what he did in his capacity as Internal Affairs Minister, Director General of the Liberia Electricity Corporation and other key positions to get rid of the Americo- Liberians –Natives’ syndrome, Quiah intimated that he recommended then that major business establishments in the country be jointly managed and named in honor of one Americo -Liberian and one Native Liberians.
“At the time, I said any company we have now must be named Tipoteh/Dennis Corporation; Bernard /Quiah Liberia Limited”, Quiah stated.
For his part, renowned economist and veteran politician Dr. Togbah Nah Tipoteh dwelled extensively on the impact the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) had on the transformation of Liberia.
He claimed MOJA was not a group bent on creating but one that advocated for the welfare of the average Liberian citizenry in terms of their living standard and wellbeing.
For Tipoteh, the entire testimony was directed towards the activities of his organization MOJA and the SUSUKU which he said helped Liberians during the civil war with food and other needed items.
Tipoteh recalls Hut tax cruelty
Dr. Tipoteh said immediately following the first round of fighting from 1989 to the disarmament in 1996, SUSUKU helped disarmed former combatants with clothing and other materials to enable them reintegrate in the society.
He recounted what he termed the cruelty of hut tax which he said subjected the Liberian people to suffering and wanton hardship.
The economist said growing up as a boy he witnessed the government of former President William V. S. Tubman, Sr., subjecting poor and low income earners especially farmers in rural Liberia to paying hut tax.
Dr. Tipoteh described the hut tax policy of the Tubman regime as cruel and brutal recapping what he said happened to a poor man in Sinoe County whom he told the Commission was tied and maltreated only to pay hut tax.
The politician said he will resist any attempt by future governments to impose hut tax on the Liberian people
Monrovia when the National Security Advisor, Henry Boima Fahnbulleh told commissioners of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) he owes no apology for his role in Liberia’s conflict past. Dr. Fahnbulleh said he too is a victim and the repression that befell Liberia could not let him unnoticed and participate in the drive of the progressives to fight for social justice and economic equity in the country.
Dr. Fahnbulleh’s exposé which glued listeners to the radio on that day was highly revealing of the Liberian situation, considering his militancy from the time of MOJA, the Movement of Justice in Africa to the time he organized his Peoples Democratic Front (PDC) which was never given the chance to land in Liberia because of what he called the intervention of the Americans and the superpower’s favor of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
Dr. Fahnbulleh was addressing the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Institutions and Thematic Hearing held under the theme: “Understanding the Conflict Through its Principal Events and Actors.” The ongoing hearings would address the root causes of the conflict, including its military and political dimensions. The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events.
The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 peace agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005. The TRC was established to “promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation,” and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.
In his testimony before ongoing TRC Thematic and Institutional Inquiry Hearings at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion on Ashmun Street, Dr. Fahnbulleh who served as the first Minister of Education in the PRC junta testified Wednesday at the Fahnbulleh said the role he played in the history of the country was well taught of and therefore has no apology to render. “Anything the military did while we were engaged with the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) we take responsibilities. As young militants we owe no apologies,” Dr. Fahnbulleh said.
“I will not bow down to history. I am a proud participant in history. To sit here and condemn what I took part in, I would not,” Dr. Fahnbulleh indicated with a punctuated round of cheers by hundreds of people that crowded the Pavilion to witness his appearance before the TRC. Fahnbulleh said the sacrifices of he and others made it possible for Liberians to enjoy the kind of democracy practice now in the country. Fahnbulleh: “For you to now elect your own representatives and senators was predicated upon our struggles.” He described the True Whig Party (TWP) regime as an “oligarchy” that suppressed the rights of the majority and contended that the 1980 military coup was justifiable.
“We owe no one apologies for our role in fighting this oligarchy. Why should we apologize for what we proudly did? They imprisoned our fathers; we went to jail at the tender age of 18. They jailed my sister at a tender age too. They killed scores of unarmed demonstrators who were simply protesting and exercising their rights. Why can’t they apologize for those excesses? I owe no one, absolutely no one an apology,” he continued.
How Fahnbulleh Get Involved with Crises
Speaking of how he joined the activism, Fahnbulleh said that at age 14, he suffered humiliation and at age 18, he was sent to prison along with his father and at age 29, he was again imprisoned which caused his impregnated wife to faint on two separate occasions but he is a proud man that she stood by him and shared his passion.
“The activisms of the 80s were necessary to address the problems associated with the 70s and the activisms of the 90s were necessary for the injustices of the 80s. If that is radicalism, so be it,” Fahnbulleh stated.
“When treated as a human, you will behave as a human but when you are treated as an animal, you behave indifferently. I think we made the right choice eventhough we made mistakes, serious mistakes of moral cowardice and recklessness being full of passion,” Fahnbulleh stressed.
“ Can you imagine just to name a few of the injustices and humiliation at the time, my younger brother was taken from school at the B. W. Harris only to join others during a parade to condemn his own father, my father, while I was then in Freetown.”
“We are all part and parcel of what happened in Liberia, some way, some how. You will need foreign experts from Ghana or somewhere to rewrite Liberia’s history if everything is to be documented because no Liberian was neutral,” he said.
“The basis of our crisis is that we got involved in a situation developing very fast without the right political leadership to comprehend what was happening in the country. As such the society exploded. Our duty as young revolutionaries was to understand the explosion, if you like to, call it opportunism. In history as in politics, especially the violent politics of Liberia, it is that those who make that history must survive enough to write about that history,” Fahnbulleh said.
Fahnbulleh explored a lot of issues surrounding the evolution of the Liberian crisis and his participation. Fahnbulleh alluded to class system, marginalization and repression to be key to the violent history of Liberia, and added that he too was a victim. He said his grandfather Netti Sieh Brownell, a prominent native Liberian, and his father H. Biomah Fahnbulleh Sr., Liberia’s one time ambassador to Kenya, were all victim to the making of the Liberian history, saying that he started conceiving his activism when he was as young as 14-18 years of age when his dad was being mistreated and humiliated in a manner that did not commensurate his status as Ambassador of a country during the Tubman regime.
According to him, he started his activism in Liberia with the Movement of Justice in Africa (MOJA) which he joined when he “thought then that MOJA was not an element of choruses with a choirmaster”. He accused the True Whig Party – the party that rule Liberia for more than 100 year of using repressive tactics to spread abject poverty and social injustices amongst the people, saying that such situation has built up the consciousness of the people who needed just change, but transformation [which has to do with change in minds and attitude].
On the Rice Riot of 1979, Dr. Fahnbulleh disclosed that he was teaching at the University of Liberia when the rice uprising was planned by the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, the political activism group led by the late Gabriel Baccus Matthews, saying that when he was asked as to whether he would join the rice march by the people, he said he told the students that he would participate in the march for rice as long as it was in the interest of the people.
Dr. Fahnbulleh, National Advisor on Security Affairs in the present Liberian administration, however said the government sent armed soldiers in the streets, who shot at the people with guns, a situation which resulted to he riot. “The people were annoyed. They came in the streets in their thousands,” adding that it was at the as the result of the riot of April 14, 1979 that that members of the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) along with him as the only member of the Movement of Justice in Africa (MOJA).
Accordingly, the rice rioters were in jail when the 17 enlisted men of the armed forces of Liberia overthrow the William Tolbert government; but Dr. Fahnbulleh said the overthrow of the True Whig Party could have been done by anyone because the people were already tired with successive regimes or the elite settlers group. There are conjectures and speculations that agents the United States of America participated in the overthrow of President William Richard Tolbert.
Doubting American’s participation in 1980 Coup
But Dr. Fahnbulleh disagrees. The National Security Advisor says he is not convinced that the Americans shot and killed President Tolbert on the morning of April 12, 1980, arguing against claims by President’s wife that she saw white hands during the overthrow of her husband, late President William R. Tolbert. The political scientist and activists argued that bit might have been ghost that the former first lady saw.
“In such situations especially of horror, sometimes one could see anyone dressed in white which could be similar description provided if one would Ask 50 persons how a ghost looks; but I am not still convinced if it were the Americans,” Dr. Fahnbulleh added. In his difference with previous witnesses and the perception that the Americans, “white people”, were affiliated in the Liberian politics especially the coup of 1980, the Liberian political actor and activist told the jammed packed audience of the TRC’s hearing at the Centennial Pavilion that “the Americans do not carry out their operations in the form of using one of their agents to assassinate a president. It could have been white people from another country.”
According to him, “Many people have said the American were involved. There is no conclusive evidence on that. Let me give my own analysis … Isn’t this possible there were Lebanese in the assassination of Tolbert? Why do I say this? I remember that the first consignment of AK-47 rifles the PRC got came from the PLO of Yasser Arafat.” He said he always amused by the claims of white hands seen by Mrs. Tolbert.
National Security Advisor, Dr. Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh Jr., Wednesday suggested that those who aided in the over throw of president William R. Tolbert could have been Lebanese and not the Americans as has been widely rumored.
“Many people have said that the Americans were involved. There is no conclusive evidence on that. Let me give my own analysis…. Isn’t this possible that there were Lebanese involved in the assassination of Tolbert? Why do I say this? I remembered the first consignment of AK-47 riffles the PRC got came from the PLO of Yasser Arafat,” Dr. Fahnbulleh said.
Dr. Fahnbulleh said Wednesday, “It is said that Mrs. Tolbert claimed she saw white hands. You know, I am always amused by people who claimed they see ghosts. Because you know, if you asked 50 people whether they have seen ghosts and 49 of them answered, saying I have seen ghosts. Asked them the color of cloth the ghost had on. They will say white.”
According to the National Security Advisor, “That lead to that is extreme fears. These people said they were white people, I have read a little bit about Americans involvement in such matters. The Americans would not used a Doe who they did not know and have not interacted with…The Americans do not operate in this way. They don’t operate in this way,” an apparent reference to the immaturity of Master-Sergeant Samuel Doe in 1980 when he toppled the Tolbert Government. Dr. Fahnbulleh insisted that the Americans will not go and assassinate a president using one of their agents as it has been said, adding “I stand to be corrected.”
“But let me assumed for a moment that Mrs. Tolbert did see white hands. Let assumed. By the time of the coup, Mr. Tolbert had put himself into some deadly and political maneuvering. Mr. Tolbert had endorsed the Polisario Front. He had moved closed to Algeria. Isn’t this possible that there were Lebanese involved in the assassination of Tolbert?
He explained that it is possible that Tolbert got himself caught in the very brutal and violent Middle East politics, which might have prompted the PLO to assist Doe and others in his assassination.
“I know one thing, these PRC guys never, never revealed how they killed Tolbert,” he said adding “And I think I know the answer is simple. They had no plans; they were only after the spoils of the moment. They had been part of the rice riot, they had seen guns and the regime had made a mistake of arresting people like George Boley, Chea Cheapoo …who were closed to these guys and I guessed when somebody crafted and released this information that Tolbert was o n his way to Zimbabwe…. and that instruction had been left behind to execute the PPP people, which I didn’t believe, somebody leaked that information. Unfortunately for Mr. Tolbert, he never went to the Bentol, he went to the Mansion.”
“The 1980 coup set the political opportunities that the Americans enjoy; indicating that it was after the coup that he along with Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh met the American Embassy Political officer at the Executive Mansion.
Dr. Fahnbulleh, 59, a political guru and writer of many books on activism who spoke on many issues that served as a catalyst to the Liberian aged-old problems, challenged any one political party or warring faction that would say that he (Boima) joined a factional group, “I had a passion to seeing my people free. I never entered Cape Mount County with troops as it was alleged.”
Fahnbulleh Taylor Relationship
Speaking on his relationship with exiled former President, Charles Taylor, ‘H.B’ as he is commonly called said that his last encounter with Taylor was in September of 1989 before he unleashed his ‘revolution’ supported by Libya on Liberia.
He said that he and Taylor talked via phone after he said that he broke prison in the United States and fled to Mexico and together they met in Ghana where he Fahnbulleh introduced Taylor to many people in authority because Taylor said that he wanted to come to Liberia but as a revolutionary.
Fahnbulleh said that Taylor was rearrested by the Ghanaian government after it was known that he escaped from prison and was taking men to Ghana to be trained to come to Liberia; but at that time he Fahnbulleh had left for Paris.
He said that later it was told that Blaise Campore came from Burkina Faso and negotiated with the Ghanaian government and that on the basis of African solidarity, Taylor was turned over to Blaise who took him to Libya and introduced him to President Khadaffi and other military officials.
“But surprisingly, a friend in Abidjan called me and informed me of a list that came from America with some 45 names including mine,” Dr. Fahnbulleh told the crowd that being informed that the list came from the Americans, he was not surprised because the Liberians in the Americas were from the oligarchy of the Tolbert regime and being a “country man” and against Taylor’s motive, his name was expected to be on such list.
Taylor had political greed
“Taylor had political greed therefore I could not work with him because I knew that from the names of those on the listing of Mr. Taylor, he was staging a revenge and not a revolution,” the former Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out.
“I do not believe in the better of two evils. I moved over to Sierra Leone where I remained until Taylor unleashed his plans on our country and people. I later moved over to the Ivory Coast and met with the Ivorian Defense Minister and told him of what was happening in my country and asked if whether his president was aware. All he told me was that his president had said that ‘if the palm oil has wasted, there is no need to step in it around the room.’ and I understood it anyway,” he said.
He said that he was approached by the Nigerians that Taylor wanted him to join him but he refused. He was even confronted by another person, who he said would appear very soon before the TRC that Taylor wanted him to help his troops with some men but again he refused knowing that Taylor was not an activist.
“Blaise sent 700 commandoes and Guinea also sent troops to help Taylor. Some so-called political leaders who were in Sierra Leone with some preachers signed a document saying that they should give their support to Taylor and after six months he would turn over power and that there would be election not even knowing that some of them were already listed for Taylor’s execution plans.”
“How can someone lead a revolution wherein none of his own kind was eliminated? It was only the children of the people that were killed including Jackson E. Doe, and others. That was a conspiracy and our intention was to stop them,” Fahnbulleh explained.
Fahnbulleh fast-forwarded several potions of his testimony at certain points thereby not being too definite of concluding the history he revealed but said that it was the True Whig Party that introduced the armed violence in Liberia and that it should be blamed for addressing political issues with violence.
He said that the party refused to listen to the younger ones who had the vision to unite the people whom they deprived of success.
He considered his advocacy along with many others who he considered as militants as a tactical gamble because no Liberian is victorious in the process adding that it was neither the country boys nor the indigenous people that received the praise.
In conclusion, the well informed witness recommended to the commission that it should insert a clause in whatever law there may be that those to occupy public offices with authority go to see a team of psychiatrists.
“They may have good platforms, but if you miscalculate and place madmen in offices of public trusts, they will damage the country or plunge it into chaos as was done in the past.
Let us be mindful for sooner or later, I may not accept political position for I have passed that stage, but if you the young ones allow madmen to preside over your destiny, you are doomed,” Dr. Fahnbulleh stated.
Apparently felling dissatisfied with the trend of Dr. Fahnbulleh’s exposure of the TWP oligarchy and its associated ills that landed Liberia into the devastating conflicted, a member of the Commission, Counselor Pearl Brown-Bull who was the Women Wing Chairperson of the then ruling True Whig Party, engaged the witness. The TRC Commissioner took the central stage against National Security Advisor with hysterical exchanges.
With Witness Fahnbulleh referring to Mrs. Bull as “Madam”, the TRC Commissioner resorted, saying: “I don’t like people calling me Madam.” After this, Fahnbulleh then said, “I call you partisan”, referring to her membership in True Whig Party. The Commissioner replied, saying she was indeed a member of the TWP, and that her interest in politics began as a student at the University of Liberia. The witness then shot back about being “part and parcel of a party that distributed poverty and disease”, adding, “You cannot write history...when one is partisan.
The two made several entertaining exchanges, but Commissioner Bull went on, to question Fahnbulleh unsuccessfully on his pre-war political role. The witness was unequivocal, declaring that he had grown to battle against the “oligarchy”, reference to the Americo-Liberian elites who ruled the country until 1980. Dr. Fahnbulleh said the history of Liberia will have to be written by non-Liberians, since none was neutral and non-partisan to undertake the task. At one point, the chair of the TRC, Commissioner Jerome Verdier warned the audience against cheering, although he was unsuccessful.
Swaray “saw Johnson-Sirleaf in Military Outfit”
Also testifying, the former political Advisor of the United Liberation Movement (ULIMO) says he saw Africa’s Ironlady Ellen Johnson with exile President Charles Taylor in military uniform in the so-called “Greater Liberia” that was created by Taylor’s national patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
Although Jesus Alieu Swaray did not give substantive explanation on this claim, he alleged before the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Thematic & Institutional Hearing at the Centennial Pavilion Thursday, August 07, 2008 that he left Monrovia in 1990 for Bong and Nimba Counties in search for saved haven.
Swaray told the Liberian people during the TRC process that upon arrival at the so-called “Greater Liberia”, he was making arrangements to travel to the Ivory Coast but could not make the trip for reason best known to him.
According to Mr. Swaray, it was during that course of time that he spotted Madam Sirleaf in her military attire. He said a friend of his called his attention, “Look, there is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf dressed in the military outfit;” Mr. Swaray indicated and noted that when he looked keenly, he recognized that it was the astute female Liberian politician visiting the Charles Taylor rebel military base with Taylor himself present at the time.
He further alleged that Ellen and Taylor paraded the streets of “Greater Liberia”. With a spirit of boldness overwhelming him when he appeared before the commission, Jesus Alieu Swaray, a Liberian Mende and political activist, requested the TRC panel to asked Madam Sirleaf, whom he said was linked to Charles Taylor.
I play Good Role
He however claimed that his role played was purely humanitarian and that he risked his life to establish the Liberia Islamic Union for Reconstruction And Development (LIURD) to help not only the Muslims, but also all others, an effort which he added had afforded him the opportunity to Western Liberia to distribute relief to residents of that part of Liberia dominated by Muslims.
The TRC witness impressed on the audience that he was asked to join ULIMO, the warring faction which was controlling security in northern and north western Liberia during his relief tour, as political officer.
Jesus Alieu Swaray further told the TRC that he give positive advises to the ULIMO faction through its leader Alhaji Kromah. Mr. Kromah led the divided rival ULIMO-K which was opposed to ULIMO-J headed by the late General D. Roosevelt Johnson during the split of ULIMO as a faction. But Mr. Swaray intimated that the selection of the Liberia National Transitional Council that was headed by Professor Wilton Sankawolo tore the ULIMO movement apart to ULIMO-K and ULIMO-J.
He said the Krahn component of ULIMO sold out the slot for the Mandingo component on the Council to prevent a Mandingo from ascending to the transitional presidency the council represented. He rejected responsibility for occurrences in the war and added that he did not engage at the battlefield as one may surmise. Mr. Swaray’s testimony was fraught waivers, uncertainties and inconsistencies that raised eyebrows amongst the audience.
Flomoyan’s Testimonies
The Chairman of the National Elections Commissioner, Counselor James Fromoyan and Deputy Commerce Minister for International Affairs, Company Wesseh also give their testimonies. Fromoyan said his involvement with Liberian politics started at the University of Liberia and added that he was imprisoned with many other “young Liberian progressives” such as H. Bioma Fahnbulleh, Company Wesseh and many others.
He recalled that he was linked to a university unanimous leaflet called “REACT” which was critical of the government’s policy, which he denied knowing something about. The Government of Samuel Doe through Justice Minister Oliver Bright put up a robust posture that did not help gather facts of the leaflets.
Fromoyan also recalled that he was arrested on December 4, 1984 and sent to the Post Stockade along with Dempster Brown, Ezekiel Pajibo, Alaric Tokpa and Christian Herbert who all were flown to the maximum prison of the time, Camp Belle Yella in the Belle Forest in Northern Liberia in 1985 on orders of the then Head of State, Samuel Doe in connection with circulation of REACT.
“In July of 1985, my sister who was the sole breadwinner of our family died and I craved for release to see my sister’s burial, but was denied and it aggrieved me,” Fromoyan indicated. He said after his release, he fled to Sierra Leone, saying “I supported the removal of Doe but not militarily.”
I Supported Doe’s Removal But
Counselor Fromoyan who was candid on his support of Charles Taylor to take over power from the Samuel Doe regime however noted that he did not envisage military means of doing this. “I was not totally surprised when I heard that Taylor was in Liberia. I was an expert on Taylor having dealt with him many times in Ghana along with Mr. Tom Kamara. Tom Kamara is the owner and publisher of the New DEMOCRAT Newspaper published in Liberia and on www.newdemocratnews.com.
Taylor, according to Fromoyan, told them that he wanted to start from Nimba County. “We discussed it and I told him, if he did, he would not directly engage with those whom he really wanted. Fromoyan said he was later confronted with one Aziz Kojo who told him that the Interpool wanted Mr. Taylor to be turned over to Doe for some acts he was involved with home (here in Liberia), but he added that he was of the opinion that sending Doe to Liberia would be dangerous for him, considering that all of them Fromoyan, Taylor and others ran from Doe.
“Taylor told us that he left prison in the United States after he was able to cut the prison bar and went under ground in New York and fled to Mexico. If that was factual, I did not investigate. But I was not aware of his plans on his trips and organization.
I Knew Doe was to be captured Sept 9, 1990
Mr. Fromoyan said he was aware of the captured date of Doe as September 9, 1990; the embattled Liberian President was captured at the Freeport of Monrovia on September 9, 1990, a year later, by the forces of Prince Y. Johnson, the leader of the defunct Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL).
“I knew that Doe was to be captured on September 9, 1989. I knew what was happening. I was not blind to the reality though I watched it on the CNN and read it on the New York Times but I mustered the courage to return home from the United States. I landed home on September 24, 1990.
Fromoyan said he was a member of the ACDL, a group of Liberians resolved to support Liberian refugees all over Africa due to the war and was therefore mobilizing resources. ACDL was the Association of Constitutional Democracy in Liberia, headed by Randolph Cooper with Dr. Sawyer, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and others as members.
He then said he did not join any belligerent faction, challenging anyone to prove him otherwise.
Henry Bioma Fahnbulleh Explores the Liberian Crises
…Says “I Owe No Apology for History”
By Bill K. Jarkloh
It was on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at the Centennial Pavilion in the Monrovia when the National Security Advisor, Henry Boima Fahnbulleh told commissioners of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) he owes no apology for his role in Liberia’s conflict past. Dr. Fahnbulleh said he too is a victim and the repression that befell Liberia could not let him unnoticed and participate in the drive of the progressives to fight for social justice and economic equity in the country.
Dr. Fahnbulleh’s exposé which glued listeners to the radio on that day was highly revealing of the Liberian situation, considering his militancy from the time of MOJA, the Movement of Justice in Africa to the time he organized his Peoples Democratic Front (PDC) which was never given the chance to land in Liberia because of what he called the intervention of the Americans and the superpower’s favor of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
Dr. Fahnbulleh was addressing the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Institutions and Thematic Hearing held under the theme: “Understanding the Conflict Through its Principal Events and Actors.” The ongoing hearings would address the root causes of the conflict, including its military and political dimensions. The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events.
The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 peace agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005. The TRC was established to “promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation,” and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.
In his testimony before ongoing TRC Thematic and Institutional Inquiry Hearings at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion on Ashmun Street, Dr. Fahnbulleh who served as the first Minister of Education in the PRC junta testified Wednesday at the Fahnbulleh said the role he played in the history of the country was well taught of and therefore has no apology to render. “Anything the military did while we were engaged with the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) we take responsibilities. As young militants we owe no apologies,” Dr. Fahnbulleh said.
“I will not bow down to history. I am a proud participant in history. To sit here and condemn what I took part in, I would not,” Dr. Fahnbulleh indicated with a punctuated round of cheers by hundreds of people that crowded the Pavilion to witness his appearance before the TRC. Fahnbulleh said the sacrifices of he and others made it possible for Liberians to enjoy the kind of democracy practice now in the country. Fahnbulleh: “For you to now elect your own representatives and senators was predicated upon our struggles.” He described the True Whig Party (TWP) regime as an “oligarchy” that suppressed the rights of the majority and contended that the 1980 military coup was justifiable.
“We owe no one apologies for our role in fighting this oligarchy. Why should we apologize for what we proudly did? They imprisoned our fathers; we went to jail at the tender age of 18. They jailed my sister at a tender age too. They killed scores of unarmed demonstrators who were simply protesting and exercising their rights. Why can’t they apologize for those excesses? I owe no one, absolutely no one an apology,” he continued.
How Fahnbulleh Get Involved with Crises
Speaking of how he joined the activism, Fahnbulleh said that at age 14, he suffered humiliation and at age 18, he was sent to prison along with his father and at age 29, he was again imprisoned which caused his impregnated wife to faint on two separate occasions but he is a proud man that she stood by him and shared his passion.
“The activisms of the 80s were necessary to address the problems associated with the 70s and the activisms of the 90s were necessary for the injustices of the 80s. If that is radicalism, so be it,” Fahnbulleh stated.
“When treated as a human, you will behave as a human but when you are treated as an animal, you behave indifferently. I think we made the right choice eventhough we made mistakes, serious mistakes of moral cowardice and recklessness being full of passion,” Fahnbulleh stressed.
“ Can you imagine just to name a few of the injustices and humiliation at the time, my younger brother was taken from school at the B. W. Harris only to join others during a parade to condemn his own father, my father, while I was then in Freetown.”
“We are all part and parcel of what happened in Liberia, some way, some how. You will need foreign experts from Ghana or somewhere to rewrite Liberia’s history if everything is to be documented because no Liberian was neutral,” he said.
“The basis of our crisis is that we got involved in a situation developing very fast without the right political leadership to comprehend what was happening in the country. As such the society exploded. Our duty as young revolutionaries was to understand the explosion, if you like to, call it opportunism. In history as in politics, especially the violent politics of Liberia, it is that those who make that history must survive enough to write about that history,” Fahnbulleh said.
Fahnbulleh explored a lot of issues surrounding the evolution of the Liberian crisis and his participation. Fahnbulleh alluded to class system, marginalization and repression to be key to the violent history of Liberia, and added that he too was a victim. He said his grandfather Netti Sieh Brownell, a prominent native Liberian, and his father H. Biomah Fahnbulleh Sr., Liberia’s one time ambassador to Kenya, were all victim to the making of the Liberian history, saying that he started conceiving his activism when he was as young as 14-18 years of age when his dad was being mistreated and humiliated in a manner that did not commensurate his status as Ambassador of a country during the Tubman regime.
According to him, he started his activism in Liberia with the Movement of Justice in Africa (MOJA) which he joined when he “thought then that MOJA was not an element of choruses with a choirmaster”. He accused the True Whig Party – the party that rule Liberia for more than 100 year of using repressive tactics to spread abject poverty and social injustices amongst the people, saying that such situation has built up the consciousness of the people who needed just change, but transformation [which has to do with change in minds and attitude].
On the Rice Riot of 1979, Dr. Fahnbulleh disclosed that he was teaching at the University of Liberia when the rice uprising was planned by the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, the political activism group led by the late Gabriel Baccus Matthews, saying that when he was asked as to whether he would join the rice march by the people, he said he told the students that he would participate in the march for rice as long as it was in the interest of the people.
Dr. Fahnbulleh, National Advisor on Security Affairs in the present Liberian administration, however said the government sent armed soldiers in the streets, who shot at the people with guns, a situation which resulted to he riot. “The people were annoyed. They came in the streets in their thousands,” adding that it was at the as the result of the riot of April 14, 1979 that that members of the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) along with him as the only member of the Movement of Justice in Africa (MOJA).
Accordingly, the rice rioters were in jail when the 17 enlisted men of the armed forces of Liberia overthrow the William Tolbert government; but Dr. Fahnbulleh said the overthrow of the True Whig Party could have been done by anyone because the people were already tired with successive regimes or the elite settlers group. There are conjectures and speculations that agents the United States of America participated in the overthrow of President William Richard Tolbert.
Doubting American’s participation in 1980 Coup
But Dr. Fahnbulleh disagrees. The National Security Advisor says he is not convinced that the Americans shot and killed President Tolbert on the morning of April 12, 1980, arguing against claims by President’s wife that she saw white hands during the overthrow of her husband, late President William R. Tolbert. The political scientist and activists argued that bit might have been ghost that the former first lady saw.
“In such situations especially of horror, sometimes one could see anyone dressed in white which could be similar description provided if one would Ask 50 persons how a ghost looks; but I am not still convinced if it were the Americans,” Dr. Fahnbulleh added. In his difference with previous witnesses and the perception that the Americans, “white people”, were affiliated in the Liberian politics especially the coup of 1980, the Liberian political actor and activist told the jammed packed audience of the TRC’s hearing at the Centennial Pavilion that “the Americans do not carry out their operations in the form of using one of their agents to assassinate a president. It could have been white people from another country.”
According to him, “Many people have said the American were involved. There is no conclusive evidence on that. Let me give my own analysis … Isn’t this possible there were Lebanese in the assassination of Tolbert? Why do I say this? I remember that the first consignment of AK-47 rifles the PRC got came from the PLO of Yasser Arafat.” He said he always amused by the claims of white hands seen by Mrs. Tolbert.
National Security Advisor, Dr. Henry Boimah Fahnbulleh Jr., Wednesday suggested that those who aided in the over throw of president William R. Tolbert could have been Lebanese and not the Americans as has been widely rumored.
“Many people have said that the Americans were involved. There is no conclusive evidence on that. Let me give my own analysis…. Isn’t this possible that there were Lebanese involved in the assassination of Tolbert? Why do I say this? I remembered the first consignment of AK-47 riffles the PRC got came from the PLO of Yasser Arafat,” Dr. Fahnbulleh said.
Dr. Fahnbulleh said Wednesday, “It is said that Mrs. Tolbert claimed she saw white hands. You know, I am always amused by people who claimed they see ghosts. Because you know, if you asked 50 people whether they have seen ghosts and 49 of them answered, saying I have seen ghosts. Asked them the color of cloth the ghost had on. They will say white.”
According to the National Security Advisor, “That lead to that is extreme fears. These people said they were white people, I have read a little bit about Americans involvement in such matters. The Americans would not used a Doe who they did not know and have not interacted with…The Americans do not operate in this way. They don’t operate in this way,” an apparent reference to the immaturity of Master-Sergeant Samuel Doe in 1980 when he toppled the Tolbert Government. Dr. Fahnbulleh insisted that the Americans will not go and assassinate a president using one of their agents as it has been said, adding “I stand to be corrected.”
“But let me assumed for a moment that Mrs. Tolbert did see white hands. Let assumed. By the time of the coup, Mr. Tolbert had put himself into some deadly and political maneuvering. Mr. Tolbert had endorsed the Polisario Front. He had moved closed to Algeria. Isn’t this possible that there were Lebanese involved in the assassination of Tolbert?
He explained that it is possible that Tolbert got himself caught in the very brutal and violent Middle East politics, which might have prompted the PLO to assist Doe and others in his assassination.
“I know one thing, these PRC guys never, never revealed how they killed Tolbert,” he said adding “And I think I know the answer is simple. They had no plans; they were only after the spoils of the moment. They had been part of the rice riot, they had seen guns and the regime had made a mistake of arresting people like George Boley, Chea Cheapoo …who were closed to these guys and I guessed when somebody crafted and released this information that Tolbert was o n his way to Zimbabwe…. and that instruction had been left behind to execute the PPP people, which I didn’t believe, somebody leaked that information. Unfortunately for Mr. Tolbert, he never went to the Bentol, he went to the Mansion.”
“The 1980 coup set the political opportunities that the Americans enjoy; indicating that it was after the coup that he along with Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh met the American Embassy Political officer at the Executive Mansion.
Dr. Fahnbulleh, 59, a political guru and writer of many books on activism who spoke on many issues that served as a catalyst to the Liberian aged-old problems, challenged any one political party or warring faction that would say that he (Boima) joined a factional group, “I had a passion to seeing my people free. I never entered Cape Mount County with troops as it was alleged.”
Fahnbulleh Taylor Relationship
Speaking on his relationship with exiled former President, Charles Taylor, ‘H.B’ as he is commonly called said that his last encounter with Taylor was in September of 1989 before he unleashed his ‘revolution’ supported by Libya on Liberia.
He said that he and Taylor talked via phone after he said that he broke prison in the United States and fled to Mexico and together they met in Ghana where he Fahnbulleh introduced Taylor to many people in authority because Taylor said that he wanted to come to Liberia but as a revolutionary.
Fahnbulleh said that Taylor was rearrested by the Ghanaian government after it was known that he escaped from prison and was taking men to Ghana to be trained to come to Liberia; but at that time he Fahnbulleh had left for Paris.
He said that later it was told that Blaise Campore came from Burkina Faso and negotiated with the Ghanaian government and that on the basis of African solidarity, Taylor was turned over to Blaise who took him to Libya and introduced him to President Khadaffi and other military officials.
“But surprisingly, a friend in Abidjan called me and informed me of a list that came from America with some 45 names including mine,” Dr. Fahnbulleh told the crowd that being informed that the list came from the Americans, he was not surprised because the Liberians in the Americas were from the oligarchy of the Tolbert regime and being a “country man” and against Taylor’s motive, his name was expected to be on such list.
Taylor had political greed
“Taylor had political greed therefore I could not work with him because I knew that from the names of those on the listing of Mr. Taylor, he was staging a revenge and not a revolution,” the former Minister of Foreign Affairs pointed out.
“I do not believe in the better of two evils. I moved over to Sierra Leone where I remained until Taylor unleashed his plans on our country and people. I later moved over to the Ivory Coast and met with the Ivorian Defense Minister and told him of what was happening in my country and asked if whether his president was aware. All he told me was that his president had said that ‘if the palm oil has wasted, there is no need to step in it around the room.’ and I understood it anyway,” he said.
He said that he was approached by the Nigerians that Taylor wanted him to join him but he refused. He was even confronted by another person, who he said would appear very soon before the TRC that Taylor wanted him to help his troops with some men but again he refused knowing that Taylor was not an activist.
“Blaise sent 700 commandoes and Guinea also sent troops to help Taylor. Some so-called political leaders who were in Sierra Leone with some preachers signed a document saying that they should give their support to Taylor and after six months he would turn over power and that there would be election not even knowing that some of them were already listed for Taylor’s execution plans.”
“How can someone lead a revolution wherein none of his own kind was eliminated? It was only the children of the people that were killed including Jackson E. Doe, and others. That was a conspiracy and our intention was to stop them,” Fahnbulleh explained.
Fahnbulleh fast-forwarded several potions of his testimony at certain points thereby not being too definite of concluding the history he revealed but said that it was the True Whig Party that introduced the armed violence in Liberia and that it should be blamed for addressing political issues with violence.
He said that the party refused to listen to the younger ones who had the vision to unite the people whom they deprived of success.
He considered his advocacy along with many others who he considered as militants as a tactical gamble because no Liberian is victorious in the process adding that it was neither the country boys nor the indigenous people that received the praise.
In conclusion, the well informed witness recommended to the commission that it should insert a clause in whatever law there may be that those to occupy public offices with authority go to see a team of psychiatrists.
“They may have good platforms, but if you miscalculate and place madmen in offices of public trusts, they will damage the country or plunge it into chaos as was done in the past.
Let us be mindful for sooner or later, I may not accept political position for I have passed that stage, but if you the young ones allow madmen to preside over your destiny, you are doomed,” Dr. Fahnbulleh stated.
Apparently felling dissatisfied with the trend of Dr. Fahnbulleh’s exposure of the TWP oligarchy and its associated ills that landed Liberia into the devastating conflicted, a member of the Commission, Counselor Pearl Brown-Bull who was the Women Wing Chairperson of the then ruling True Whig Party, engaged the witness. The TRC Commissioner took the central stage against National Security Advisor with hysterical exchanges.
With Witness Fahnbulleh referring to Mrs. Bull as “Madam”, the TRC Commissioner resorted, saying: “I don’t like people calling me Madam.” After this, Fahnbulleh then said, “I call you partisan”, referring to her membership in True Whig Party. The Commissioner replied, saying she was indeed a member of the TWP, and that her interest in politics began as a student at the University of Liberia. The witness then shot back about being “part and parcel of a party that distributed poverty and disease”, adding, “You cannot write history...when one is partisan.
The two made several entertaining exchanges, but Commissioner Bull went on, to question Fahnbulleh unsuccessfully on his pre-war political role. The witness was unequivocal, declaring that he had grown to battle against the “oligarchy”, reference to the Americo-Liberian elites who ruled the country until 1980. Dr. Fahnbulleh said the history of Liberia will have to be written by non-Liberians, since none was neutral and non-partisan to undertake the task. At one point, the chair of the TRC, Commissioner Jerome Verdier warned the audience against cheering, although he was unsuccessful.
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